Or, 40 million fewer people approve of Obama now…*
One of the sites I check every morning, just because I’m that much of a political nerd, is Rasmussen Reports to see what Obama’s approval rating is on their daily tracking poll. Some big news from the release this morning:
Overall, 56% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the President’s performance so far while 43% disapprove.
That 56/43 split is the worst for Obama since the inauguration. Pollster.com’s average has Obama dipping below 60% for the first time since taking office today as well.
I guess this is what happens when unnaturally high expectations collide with reality. Welcome back to earth, Obama supporters.
*At his high water mark, Rasmussen had 69% of Americans approving of Obama. A decline of 13 percent of Americans is roughly 40 million people.
UPDATE: Thanks to Max’s posting of this awesome chart from Pollster.com, we can see at 56% that Obama is now less popular than Eisenhower, Kennedy, Nixon, Carter, Bush 41, and Bush 43 were at this point in their Presidencies.
March 7th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
I’ll post the crosstabs when I get them…
Newsweek has him at 58% approval as well
MSDNC/WSJ has him at 60%
Cook Political Report at 58%
Democracy Corp at 55%
Gallup today at 62%
Oddly enough, FoxNews has him at 63%.
Obama wishes he was as popular as that divisive president George W. Bush who was at 63% approval at this time in March of 2001.
March 7th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.
(Thought a little Lincoln was appropriate, here.)
March 7th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
Also worth noting, the percentage of those who strongly disapprove of Obama’s job performance climbed four points overnight to 31 percent — the highest disapproval rating Obama has earned since the very first poll that was released on November 6th following his election.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/obama_approval_index_history
March 7th, 2009 at 3:01 pm
“posting of this awesome chart from Pollster.com”
I guess your chart reading skills need work. Obama is still higher than Nixon, and higher than Clinton and Reagan. I.e. higher than the last three presidents who went on to be reelected.
Whistlin’ past the graveyard, buddy. Trust me on this one. As an avowed Reagan detester, I watched in glee as his approvals sunk down into the 30s during his first term. Clintons did as well, though I wasnt cheering that.
And gee, look how it all turned out. And you guys are cheering because Obama is at 60?
heh
March 7th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
Obama Channels Cheney
Obama adopts Bush view on the powers of the presidency.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123638765474658467.html
George W. Obama?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/06/AR2009030601328_pf.html
Can the GOP Come Back?
Yes, it can.
by Jay Cost
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Utilities/printer_preview.asp?idArticle=16250&R=160C323694
March 7th, 2009 at 3:13 pm
I live in Youngstown, OH. It has got to be the #1 city in America for Reagan Haters…. I argue with your typical union Democrats here all the time about how much they hate Reagan. It’s sickening.
The unemployment rate in Youngstown in 1983 was 22%. When Carter was president though, Black Monday occurred, causing tens of thousands of people to lose their steel jobs in a single day.
They are too partisan not to blame Carter, they blame Reagan!
March 7th, 2009 at 3:33 pm
Tano, do me two favors.
1. Find 56% on the y-axis of that chart, then find 46 days on the x-axis. Now plot that point on the graph. Notice how it is lower than Nixon’s y-value.
2. Notice how this article didn’t mention anything about re-election. Obama’s ratings could be anywhere from 70% to 20% in 2012, because nobody knows what’s going to happen with this economy or with Russia, China, or Iran, among a hundred other variables. This post was simply about the news that it is now at the lowest of his Presidency, which is, I would think, newsworthy regardless of what side of the aisle you’re on.
March 7th, 2009 at 5:37 pm
Anything over 50% is very good when we are in the worst recession since the 1930′s.
The more relevant figure is the figure vis a vis the republicans as he will not be running against himself in 2012.
March 7th, 2009 at 5:44 pm
Heath,
Obama came in being heralded as the Democratic Ronald Reagan, but when Reagan took office in the midst of economic crisis his numbers immediately starting going up. Obama’s have immediately started going down, presumably because Americans are rejecting his handling of the economy. That is good news for capitalism and bad news for Obama’s numbers in the immediate future.
And any re-election campaign is essentially a referendum on the incumbent, so in a way, Obama will be running against himself.
However, as I noted above, this isn’t anything to do with re-election, as his numbers could go anywhere in the next four years depending on hundreds of different variables.
March 7th, 2009 at 5:48 pm
“Anything over 50% is very good when we are in the worst recession since the 1930’s.” Now this is starting to get hilarious again. For one thing, I bet even FDR was way over 56% at this stage in his presidency.
March 7th, 2009 at 6:02 pm
I guess this is what happens when you are primarily responsible for blasting most Americans wealth into oblivion. Maybe?
March 7th, 2009 at 6:51 pm
Obama Ponders Outreach to Elements of the Taliban
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/08/us/politics/08obama.html?hp=&pagewanted=print
Obama’s Interview Aboard Air Force One
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/08/us/politics/08obama-text.html?pagewanted=print
The “Other Gitmo”
Obama backs Bush on key terrorist detention policy.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Utilities/printer_preview.asp?idArticle=16232&R=160C32CF57
March 7th, 2009 at 6:54 pm
Zogby (if you take him seriously) has Obama at 52/46 approval/disapproval. This purportedly online but scientific poll by Zogby was sponsored by the National wildlife foundation…
March 7th, 2009 at 8:45 pm
And the vote on November 4th was: Obama 52.9% McCain 45.7%
In 2-4 weeks Obama may be matching these totals.
March 8th, 2009 at 1:58 am
I would not use Rasmussen as a reference point. He is known to slant his polls rightward and had Bush at a substantially higher approval than everyone else.
March 8th, 2009 at 4:29 am
Ras is not slanted per se, it is actually one of the better companies. One of the main reasons Mr. Bush had a higher approval rating under Ras was because they gave people the option of saying whether they strongly approve or just moderately approve. Many people were not willing to say that they approved of Mr. Bush if they were simply given the choice of saying they approved or disapproved, (or could not say) but they had no problem saying that they approved only moderately. Other polling companies ask people to rank approval on excellent, good average and poor; both average and poor are automatically considered disapprove. Needless to say this kind of question makes it even more difficult for Mr. Bush or anybody else for that matter to get a good score. Ras on at least a few occasions asked the question the same way as the other companies for fun and all of a sudden, their results were much more similar to the other companies than what they had been getting.
March 8th, 2009 at 9:17 am
Since the election, everything has been going our way. Obama’s favorability ratings are tanking and his agenda is unpopular. We elected a popular and articulate chairman in Michael Steele who has been shaking things up and going on offense against Obama. Bobby Jindal gave an historic response speech that outlined our philosophical opposition to government and spending. John McCain’s crusade against earmarks is popular among Americans and Santelli’s critique is resonating from coast to coast. All one has to do is look at Obama’s sinking ratings as compared to Rush’s skyrocketing ratings to know where the momentum is.
March 8th, 2009 at 10:06 am
Guys, we haven’t even hit Obama’s two month mark yet. Let’s hold off on the obituaries, shall we?
March 8th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
“Let’s hold off on the obituaries,” I do not think that we are exactly writing the obituary just yet, but we can hold off on the re-election parade.
March 12th, 2009 at 3:52 pm
“Obama’s have immediately started going down, presumably because Americans are rejecting his handling of the economy. That is good news for capitalism and bad news for Obama’s numbers in the immediate future.”
Yes, it’s good news for capitalism when the world’s largest capitalist economy has been so undermined by lousy conservative policies that it can’t even be saved by $1.5 trillion in loans.
Good news!
March 12th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
JA Pruce Says: Since the election, everything has been going our way. Obama’s favorability ratings are tanking and his agenda is unpopular. We elected a popular and articulate chairman in Michael Steele who has been shaking things up and going on offense against Obama. Bobby Jindal gave an historic response speech that outlined our philosophical opposition to government and spending. John McCain’s crusade against earmarks is popular among Americans and Santelli’s critique is resonating from coast to coast. All one has to do is look at Obama’s sinking ratings as compared to Rush’s skyrocketing ratings to know where the momentum is.
As a liberal, I really, really, really, really hope you believe all that.
I mean, today ALONE, Michael Steele is getting his butt kicked up and down the block by his own party…
TPM posted a collection of links:
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/03/the_knives_are_being_sharpened.php
Not a good day so far for Michael Steele. Let’s round it up.
Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council is aghast at Steele’s apparently pro-choice comments to GQ, comments which Steele has tried to walk back.
Ken Blackwell, Steele’s former rival for RNC chair, saw fit to chime in, saying Steele “needs to get to work — or get out of the way.”
Mike Huckabee called Steele’s pro-choice comments “a violation of the most basic of human rights.”
GOP dirty trickster Roger Stone tells TPMDC that the GQ interview was “one more nail in the coffin” for Steele.
Even if Steele were to immediately cease sticking his foot in his own mouth, are there any other ticking time bombs like the GQ interview that have yet to go off?